New Toby Keith Music Could Hit Airwaves Thanks to Jamey Johnson

Back in 2022, Toby Keith shocked the world of music when he announced he was diagnosed with stomach cancer. Although a scary situation, the country singer never stopped fighting and in 2023 he accepted the Icon Award at the People’s Choice Country Awards. To celebrate the moment, he gave a passionate performance of “Don’t Let the Old Man In.” Sadly, in February 2024, the country icon passed away. While the entire music industry and America celebrated his legacy, Jamey Johnson recently revealed he was working with Keith at the time of his death. 

With Keith passing away, the last album the singer produced was Peso in My Pocket back in 2021. While the singer recorded more than a few hit songs, many believed the album marked the end of his career. But thanks to Johnson, new music for Keith might be on the way eventually. Speaking with Billboard, he said, “We were working on a song toward the end. I called him up one night and shared a few lines with him, and he added a few lines, and we turned around and wrote this whole verse.”

Recalling what it was like to work with Keith at that time, Johnson explained, “We laughed a bunch. And it was one of those things that I thought, ‘This is great. There’s gonna come a time I’ll get out to Oklahoma or maybe he and I will meet up somewhere at a golf tournament, but we’ll have some time [to] sit down and finish this thing up.”

[RELATED: “It Moved Everything Into High Gear”: How Toby Keith’s Death Inspired Jamey Johnson’s First Solo Album in 14 Years]

Jamey Johnson Shocked By How Quickly Toby Keith Passed

With Keith passing away, the future of the songs is somewhat in limbo according to Johnson. “I don’t know what happens with the songs now. But I know some time is probably going to go by, and I might break them back out and revisit them later on. But I think right now the friends of his that I would consider finishing those songs with are still hurting, and it’s probably not time to start trying to do that just yet.”

While waiting for the perfect time, Johnson insisted that even when working with Keith, he never expected his friend to pass so quickly. “He always gave me the feeling that this wasn’t nothing. He was gonna beat this: ‘Don’t worry about me, pal. I got this’. And that lasted right up until [the month he died].”

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